HIBISCUS 27 



1950. Waterfowl Habitat Improvement on Reelfoot Lake. John H. Steenia. Jour. 



Tenn. Acad. Sci., 25 (I). 

 19-15. A Progress Report on the Marsh and Aquatic Plant Problem: Reelfoot Lake. 



John H. Steenis and Clarence Cottam. Jour. Tennessee Acad. Sci., 20 (1). 



HIBISCUS 



BOTANICAL 



This warm-climate genus of nearly 200 species has about 20 to 

 25 native representatives in the United States. Because of their 

 showy flowers, various kinds of exotic hibiscus are cultivated as 

 ornamentals in warm regions of the country. Only two or three 

 species are significant as weeds in waterfowl habitat, though sev- 

 eral others occur in marshes. The plants are perennials that re- 

 generate from basal buds in the spring. Their large seeds ger- 

 minate abundantly on mud flats exposed by receding water. 



H. moscheutos, here treated as including palustris and oculi- 

 roseus, is the most important weedy hibiscus. It grows in fresh 

 or mildly brackish marshes from Massachusetts to Texas and 

 occurs inland locally in the East. In some localities the plant is a 

 weed of major importance. Its local names are rosemallow, hibis- 

 cus, hollyhock, and marshmallow. 



H. militaris is primarily an inland species, occurring from Penn- 

 sylvania, Minnesota, and Nebraska, south to Florida and Louisi- 

 ana. Its chief abundance is along river margins and in adjoining 

 areas subject to periodic overflow. H. lasiocarpos also grows inland, 

 sometimes associated with H. militaris. Saltmarsh mallow, Koste- 

 letzkya virginica, is common in Atlantic and Gulf Coast marshes 

 but generally has lesser consequence as a weed. 

 IMPORTANCE 



Hibiscus plants provide nesting sites for some marsh songbirds 



